Cappies winners express gratitude for the arts

Hundreds attended high school theatre gala

The Delta Nus ensemble from Strathcona High School won the the award for Outstanding Ensemble in a Musical at the 2012 Cappies Gala at the Citadel Theatre in Edmonton on June 10, 2012.

Photograph by: Ed Kaiser
, edmontonjournal.com

EDMONTON - At an escalating moment of group euphoria during the fifth annual Cappies gala Sunday night at the Citadel, two different high school ensembles were moved to express their gratitude.

“We’re thankful for the arts!” cried The Velveteen Rabbit ensemble, as the crowd roared its approval. Among shout-outs to cast and crew, and directors Linette Smith and Stephen Delano, the Legally Blonde chorus was moved to thank “anyone who ever helped with anything!” That’s the kind of generosity you don’t find in any other showbiz awards show. Moreover, you don’t have to hear anyone thank his agent, his tax accountant, or his lawyer.

The vaudevillian team of Mayor Stephen Mandel and his wife Lynn, who presented the ensemble Cappies prizes, seemed particularly struck by this global esprit de corps. “Ah, to be young again!” sighed the former, perhaps musing on the more fractious ingratitude of the political world.

At the Cappies celebratory grand finale, written by the husband-wife team of Chris Bullough and Jana O’Connor and directed by Eileen Sproule, the spirit of inclusiveness was on display from the start. The 13-year-old program, short for Cappies and Awards Program, was designed to enhance the profile of high school theatre in a puck- and hoop-centric world, and shatter the hoary old “drama nerd” ghettoizing mythology.

More than a thousand kids at 25 Edmonton-area high schools participated in Cappies shows this past season. Cappies director Chris Standring says that burgeoning number has tripled since the program, a collaboration between local schools and the Edmonton Journal, debuted here in 2008.

Cappies World even includes 184 student critics. At Sunday’s celebration of 39 categories — from makeup to marketing, props to performance — the reviewers who voted to select the Cappies winners themselves took home awards. The raucous music of crowd cheers isn’t exactly the signature tune of theatre critics worldwide, if one might be permitted a personal aside.

The evening began with a Cappies reworking of One, the Chorus Line paean to Broadway dreams. “One, Cappies nomination, every little step we take....” Gone was the harsher vibe about the cruel (un) natural selectivity of showbiz, in favour of something more collaborative. That’s what the Citadel’s executive producer Penny Ritco talked about, in presenting the “creativity” Cappie to Nicolette Desmarais and Ashley McIntyre of The Velveteen Rabbit. She paid tribute to “the Gypsies,” the members of ensembles for whom participation in theatre is a satisfaction beyond the single-minded quest for stardom.

The evening culminated with a Footloose number. And speaking of loose feet, if excitement is calibrated in the height of high heels — one of the most reliable measures in Western civilization— the Cappies gala was a theatre high of stratospheric dimensions. The agile comic talent and charisma of host Bridget Ryan, which extended to a one-minute solo stage version of the entire novel Pride And Prejudice, propelled the excitable, well-shod audience through the evening. In this, Ryan was materially assisted by the excellent onstage orchestra that Citadel resident musical director Don Horsburgh assembled from a corps of seasoned pros supplemented by students.

There was showbiz advice to be had — from the veteran Ryan (“don’t underestimate The Wave”) and such Cappies recipients as Matt Ness, awarded for his comic work in St. Joseph’s production of the trouser-dropping, door-slamming farce Noises Off. He explained that there is, in fact, a guaranteed route to being funny. “Take off your pants in front of 200 people: that works. Do it.”

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